In 2010, Honeywell was using a version of SunGard’s AvantGard Treasury Workstation, Quantum that was nearing the end of its lifecycle. The workstation was hosted by Honeywell’s data centre. The on-going maintenance and in-house IT support of the treasury workstation were taking up a great deal of time and resources. The company’s IT department was also in the process of migrating all its existing ERP systems to one global vendor.

Honeywell’s treasury needed to evaluate the treasury module of the global ERP provider versus the existing SunGard AvantGard Treasury Workstation and decide the best path forward for the company.

The following steps were taken:

• Produced a detailed list of business requirements and scored them based on functionality, total cost of ownership (upfront and on-going), product development capabilities, and risk assessment.
• Asked vendors to demonstrate their software packages to the treasury team, IT and other key corporate players.
• In depth benchmarking sessions were held with established corporate end-users of both vendors.
• Explored the pros and cons of a global ERP solution versus a stand-alone treasury solution.
• A third party consultant was engaged to provide an objective and independent verification of the company’s findings. An extensive evaluation of both vendors was completed focusing on the vendor that provided the optimal balance of functionality, cost of ownership, implementation risk, customer support and on-going product development capabilities.

After its deliberations, the Honeywell treasury team decided on SunGard’s AvantGard Treasury solution in a hosted environment. The solution delivers advanced technology that is helping to drive integration, automation and visibility, while at the same time utilising tools to manage risk and maximise liquidity. One of the biggest benefits the new system has brought to the company is that senior management has gained increased control and visibility with consolidated global reporting and the ability to create on demand reports.

In addition, automation has enabled Honeywell to redeploy the efforts of skilled treasury employees to more strategic initiatives within the business. In order to guarantee a successful and innovative upgrade, Honeywell assembled a team of cross-functional/regional members. Leaders were designated to represent each of Honeywell’s three regional treasury centres, while functional experts were assigned to specific modules and tasked with assembling the best cross functional teams. The cross functional team model enabled the company to challenge any existing assumptions and open up the organisation to new thinking.

Honeywell treasury is pioneering the path with its decision to host its mission critical Treasury Workstation Application and its business sensitive database at SunGard, taking advantage of the latest cloud technology. The SunGard-Honeywell cloud solution is world class. It provides state-of-the-art data centres, a high level of security, Six Sigma up-time and a well designed disaster recovery plan.

“The system is designed to evolve with progressing technologies and is positioning Honeywell for future growth. We are also looking to embrace ‘on-the-go treasury’ technology and working to offer a cutting edge mobile eTreasury application. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to choosing the right approach to automating treasury functions.

A company’s chosen strategy will vary based on the scope of treasury’s responsibilities, its level of involvement in operational cash flows, its geographical footprint, and the complexity of its banking operations. However, partnering with SunGard on multiple aspects of treasury technology is an excellent business decision for Honeywell,” says Susan Puente-Duany.